In the
fluidity of Aqueous we capture the expressions of harmony of
humanity with nature unto itself. Luminous underwater visions and
organic forms become fused into a type of sensual celebration.
Fernando Urena Rib's work over the years have become more and more
captivating as he integrates and balances pigments and hues,
combining movements with the seamless blending of multiple forms.
Fernando
is in his own way, a feminist. Not in the contemporary social sense
but in the earthy sense of one absorbed by feminine life forces. The
forms and figures are feminine forms that arrest the viewer. There
might be nude women floating gracefully about his canvases but there
is absence of eroticism. The progressive attitude in art calls for
transcendence of the obvious. Fernando's work's, be them graced with
human organic forms are wonderful expressions of sensual delight
that transcend blatant eroticism and expend into harmonic euphoria.
For
over twenty years art collectors from major European and American
cities highly appreciate and acquire Fernando Ureña Rib's works,
which is an attestation of the quality and maestria of his art work.
Every painting is in relation with life and as we all know, all life
stems from water. Fernando's Aqueous series of oil paiontings is a
magic depiction of the fluidity of existence and of the organic
expressions of life.
Here
we sense the throb of the "Tropic" (Title of another one of his
shows) and it climatic effects on both man and nature.
The
poetic texts that introduce his catalogues- poetry is the "Violin de Ingres" of the artist-,
among the emotive phrases of anecdotes we find the hidden key to
diverse combinations, organized and harmonious, always more
committed to imaginary transmutations. In Tropic (April 1996) Ureña
Rib says: "One begins to see the mirage, those reverberations of
heat which now melt the images and convert them into a volatile,
evanescent chromatic shape."
And
later (Celajes, November
1996) "The river multiplied and divided the last colors of the
afternoon and was converted into an enormous kaleidoscope of liquid
and phosphorescent metals." While George Arzeno Brugal justly
observed, more directly: " Simultaneously, many of his paintings
take up once more the ancient theme of reflecting movement and the
displacements of bodies in space."
Evidently
the exquisiteness of color -inseparable from the quality of life and
form-the synthesis of resonance's, contrasts, tonal subtleties, all
converged powerfully into substantial optic repercussions. Jeanette
Miller once wrote defensively that "The handling of color and of
pictorial material prove secondary to his graphic abilities" (Historia de la
Pintura Dominicana, 1979) . Yesterday the lifeline of Fernando Ureña
Rib pictorial work was...the line; Today, the richness and delicacy
of the palette determine in great measure the melodic line of his
paintings. It is possible that the artist consciously or
unconsciously could have said to himself: "They have repeated so
often than I am a great draftsman-I am going to show them now I am
also a great colorist." Further, the initial compositions in the
series, dating from 1996, denote an unusual search, tending to "mute"
the leaves and stems suggested by manufactured or other manmade
objects. They insisted not only on tonal gradations but also on the
unctuosity of the paste and on a three dimensionality achieved
through chromatic emphasis.
We
found then those two elements that are required for the domination
of color: The intrinsic beauty of each shade and the harmony, which
results from the combination of various colors, enriched by the
subtle range of tones.
The
common denominator was present in all of the canvases. Some of them
in particular intensified the luminous elements, that it was
converted into a fascinating resplendence. Although a luminous
energy reigned supreme in this show, no fewer notables was the
renewed research of form. This aspect of Fernando Ureña Rib's work
can be classified as Abstract or neo abstraction, the morphological
representative of the known and identifiable World yields to
imaginary structures, and the accentuated study of form, color and
light.
Transmutations
of all kind (from carnal and floral to fruits and the mechanistic)
inhabit the atmosphere, this Being either substantial or totally
airy. On the bases of this magical iconography, we maintain our
initial denomination that this is essentially fantastic and
surrealistic.
Today "surrealism" is not
equated with a disorganization of the conscious world, but rather
with its profound reorganization according to the internal dictates
of the Self and the free functioning of the inspiration. It is this
reorganization, with its own laws of poetry and harmony that we
perceive in the Underworld, Oceans and Apologies of Internal Song.
("Submundos", "Océanos" y "Apologías del Canto Interior")
Ten
years later the roads have been covered, they have been widen and
converted into a broad path well trod by work, in searching with
success creative new routes. The works of Fernando Ureña Rib
characterized by unity and metamorphoses, has the future spread out
before it.
Scott Duperron
President of Attache Data-Link
